I have been a hunter for most of my adult life. I have never hunted turkey before so I am not sure if this is common or not. I have talked to a few of my friends that hunt turkey and they think this is rare so I thought I would post to see what others had to say. I went to this spot in hopes of photographing deer and I was startled when a turkey started clucking behind me. I had always heard that turkeys were quite skiddish so I carefully removed my camera from my long lens and tripod and put on my telephoto and turned around to see that it was a white hen and not "Butterball domestic white". This one still has patterns on the feathers.I snapped as fast as I could thinking I would only have a short amount of time before it was out of site. Except this one didn't hardly flinch. I spent the next 45 minutes "playing" with the turkey. After getting quite a few photos I got out my cell phone and got some really good video. I have video of the turkey at one point moving around and it appears to have lost site of me and started to wander off. I started talking to it and whistling at it. It turned around and came back to me. I am guessing that I was near a nest or something. I never did get any pictures of deer that day but I had an interesting story and lots of good pictures and video to show friends.I am interested to know if turkeys of this coloring are common or if I truly had a lucky encounter.I will attach a picture or two.

My understanding is that any turkey seen in the woods with large patches of white, hen or tom, is a hybrid of a wild turkey and a domestic. The best part is that if you do see one of them, you can shoot them and they do not count towards your season limit.

looks like a smokey grey phase hen, while not very common, there are a few around..... i see one every few years where i live in central va., the coloration is caused by a recessive gene that is present in both parents of the bird, which is why it is so rare.....i have a pic i took years ago of a smokey grey hen w/a brood of normally colored poults....tho not nearly as nice as yours.....very nice photo

ylpnfol wrote:looks like a smokey grey phase hen, while not very common, there are a few around..... i see one every few years where i live in central va., the coloration is caused by a recessive gene that is present in both parents of the bird, which is why it is so rare.....i have a pic i took years ago of a smokey grey hen w/a brood of normally colored poults....tho not nearly as nice as yours.....very nice photo

I agree with the guys above and this appears to be a smoke phase turkey. If I can remember correctly there is also red phase turkeys. If you do a search on the T&TH forum u posted something a while back about this very topic as there was an article in the local paper about it.

Here is a link to a Minneapolis Star Tribune article about smoke phase turkeys.

yes splinky there was a decent thread on the forums awhile ago & i caught some flack for my thoughts on "WHITE PHASE" wild turkeys so i was not going to comment here but thought better of it & im not claiming to be a expert or anything just adding to what dewey was saying there is many COLOR PHASE wild turkeys this turkey is rare even in areas wear the recessive trait occurs in a give n population this hen seems to be a SMOKEY/SILVER PHASE wild turkey there is also a SMOKEY/SLATE OR BLUE PHASE & just a SMOKEY/GRAY PHASE there is a MELANISTIC or BLACK PHASE wild turkey there is also a ERYTHRITIC or RED PHASE wild turkey & there is also a WHITE PHASE wild turkey & the most rare is the ALBINO COLOR PHASE but it really is just a ALBINO pink eyes & little to no color to the beard & it breaks off & dose not grow very big on a true ALBINO... even the spurs lack color on a ALBINO...

all over the net there is many different pics of many variations of the COLOR PHASE TURKEYS mentioned above some are DOMESTIC BREEDS of PEN RAISED turkeys that either got lose & got into a flock of wild turkey in the area or was a result of a PEN RAISED DOMESTIC breeding with a wild turkey population in a give n area... many of these turkeys that area being shown in pics on-line look very much like a ROYAL PALM domestic breed turkey but then again so dose a SMOKY/SILVERPHASE so???

great pics & thanks for sharing i have seen a BLUE/SLATE COLOR PHASE B4 & a SMOKEY/SLATE BLUE PHASE B4 in the wild it was cool never seen a gobbler that wasa COLOR PHASE but have hunted a few areas wear they were taken... hope someday i will get a crack at 1???

Thanks everyone for the responses. It was a fun afternoon and I am hoping to return to that area this coming weekend. Who knows maybe I will have a chance to see it again. I am thinking about posting a couple of the videos I took of my encounter with this turkey on Youtube. If I do, I will post the link to it. Happy hunting!